Baby nipple assemblies are well known for permitting babies and young toddlers to drink from a bottle by suckling. These baby nipple assemblies typically comprise a soft rubber nipple for suckling, with the nipple being releasably secured to the mouth of the bottle by a screw-on cap. More particularly, the cap typically has a hole in its center for allowing the nipple to protrude from the cap, with the cap securing a flange formed on the back end of the nipple to the top rim of the bottle. This design has proven highly advantageous, since it allows for easy access to the interior of the bottle for refilling, it allows for easy disassembly for cleaning, it allows a worn out or damaged rubber nipple to be replaced separately from the bottle and cap, etc. As a result, baby nipple assemblies of the sort described above are in widespread use throughout much of the world.
In recent years, it has become common for beverage providers, and particularly fruit drink providers, to package their beverages in a flexible drink pouch. More particularly, with this arrangement, a single beverage serving is packaged in a flexible drink pouch, and a straw (contained in a disposable wrapper) is releasably secured to the exterior of the package. The straw is provided with a sharp tip on one end, and the flexible drink pouch is provided with a target puncture zone near its top end. In use, the user detaches the straw from the exterior of the flexible drink pouch, removes the straw from its wrapper, pokes the sharp end of the straw through the side wall of the flexible drink pouch, and then drinks from the flexible drink pouch with a sucking action. In addition, the user can simultaneously squeeze the side walls of the flexible drink pouch during use, so as to help force fluid up through the straw and into the user's mouth.
Such an arrangement has proven to be quite popular, inasmuch as it provides a simple, inexpensive and space-saving way to package, store, transport and utilize beverages, particularly in single-serving quantities.
Unfortunately, however, these flexible drink pouches suffer from several drawbacks. Among these is the problem that the user must be old enough to drink from a straw. Thus, children needing to drink with a nipple (e.g., infants and very young toddlers) generally cannot drink from such a flexible drink pouch. Furthermore, once the straw has been inserted into the flexible drink pouch, it takes a fair amount of manual dexterity to securely hold the flexible drink pouch in one's hand without inadvertently causing the beverage to “shoot out” the end of the straw. Thus, many young toddlers cannot use these flexible drink pouches without spilling the beverage. Furthermore, even if the toddler is old enough to be able to drink from the flexible drink pouch without spilling, or is in a location (e.g., the beach) where spilling may be acceptable, it can still be unsafe to leave the child unattended with the flexible drink pouch, since the straw constitutes a sharp object which could cause injury to the child or to another nearby child.